


Sorting the Flash

by abhorsen (beeezie)



Series: Abhorsen's Sorting Hat [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Hogwarts House Sorting, The Sorting Hat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 09:49:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12106086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeezie/pseuds/abhorsen
Summary: I sort various characters from the Flash (Arrowverse). It's fun and hyper-meta.





	Sorting the Flash

**Author's Note:**

> My summer obsession has been the Flash. I’ve always been more of a Marvel kind of girl, but I also like superspeed, so I decided to check out the Flash. And now I’m hooked, largely because Barry Allen has become one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.
> 
> When I sort, I use the system laid out on the tumblr ‘sortinghatchats’ - which is basically the best thing in the history of sorting. Basically, they identify two aspects on which people can be sorted: their primary house (or **why** they do things) and their secondary house (or **how** they do things). Neither axis is more or less important than the other - they’re just two different ways in which people interact with the world.

Barry Allen is tough to sort, because he can look like a lot of different things. The only primary he _doesn't_ look much like is Ravenclaw’s, and I’ve second-guessed myself a fair amount as I’ve gone through the series. Let’s look at all three contenders. From sortinghatchats:

> _Slytherin Primaries prioritize individual loyalties and find their moral core in protecting and caring for the people they are closest to. They often construct a morality system to deal with situations that are not addressed by their loyalty system._

It’s probably the easiest to pick out when Barry has shown a Slytherin side: they’re some of the most significant decisions he’s made, and they’ve had lasting consequences. Changing the timeline to save his mother and father, as well as his fixation on saving Iris to the exclusion of almost everything else (both in season three), were motivated by his individual loyalties.

However, the key here is that Barry isn’t _comfortable_ with those choices. He feels an enormous amount of guilt whenever he makes a selfish decisions, whether it’s for himself or for the people he cares about. A Slytherin primary wouldn’t be wrecked with guilt over Flashpoint the way Barry is, and even at his lowest and most unhappy, Barry doesn’t look anything like a petrified Slytherin primary. He hasn’t stopped caring about the people in his inner circle - he just doesn’t want to get them hurt.

From sortinghatchats again:

> _Hufflepuff Primaries value people. They value community, bond to groups, and they make their decisions off of who is in the most need and who is the most vulnerable and who they can help. They value fairness because every person is a person and feel best when they give everyone a fair chance._

This looks a lot more like Barry. He values his team at STAR Labs and bonds strongly with them very quickly, and his focus is invariably on saving people who are vulnerable. He wants the world to be _fair,_ and he embodies that when he doesn’t just give members of his team second chances - he _dismisses_ their apologies as unnecessary, as he does when Cisco revealed Barry’s identity to Leonard Snart because his brother’s life was threatened.

Hufflepuff could fit Barry. The major question is this: does Barry look _more_ like a Hufflepuff than any other hero?

My inclination would be to say no. Here’s what the Gryffindor primary synopsis from sortinghatchats is:

> _Gryffindor Primaries trust their moral intuitions. They feel what’s right in their gut, and that matters and guides them. If they don’t listen to and act on that, it feels immoral._

Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs can look quite a bit alike. They’re both “felt” houses - that is, their metaphorical north star are their guts, and they don’t need to pick those feelings apart to know that they’re _real._

But Gryffindors are also idealists, where Hufflepuffs are loyalists. For Gryffindors, it’s about the ideas and doing The Right Thing no matter what. For Hufflepuffs, it’s about people and furthering the community. The end result is often the same, but how they get there isn’t.

A Hufflepuff primary would care about unity and social harmony much, much more than Barry does. Would Barry prefer for the people around him to get along? Sure. Does he want them to agree with him? Absolutely. But Barry doesn’t _need_ them to agree with him. That’s a pattern established in the very first episode that runs throughout the series: if Barry thinks that something is right, he’ll do it, and screw what anyone else says. “I’m sorry, but you can’t talk me out of this” or “I’ve made up my mind” are used over and over and over again - and for Barry, social harmony is collateral damage that he doesn’t hesitate to accept if it means that he’s doing The Right Thing.

And while Barry’s attachment to his ever-expanding team at STAR Labs is significant, the _nature_ of that attachment points at a Gryffindor primary, too. His core identity doesn’t revolve around STAR Labs - it revolves around being the Flash, and his passion for his ideals drags the team out of a thick malaise and brings people together to work toward _his_ vision. That’s far more characteristic of a Gryffindor primary than a Hufflepuff primary.

The other key is to look at Barry not just at his best, but at his _worst._ Barry at his worst doesn’t really look much like a burned Puff primary - he never really sees having a community as inherently _unsafe,_ nor does he ever try to shrink it, with the possible exception of stepping away from it in the beginning of season two. However, Barry at his worst looks a lot like a Gryffindor primary who’s starting to strip - he’s never at his most anguished than he is when he _doesn’t know what’s right._

Barry Allen is a **Gryffindor primary**.

His secondary is a lot more straightforward. His _teams_ at STAR Labs improvises and plans, and he works hard to improve his speed, but none of that is who Barry _is._

_Charging_ is who Barry Allen is. _Inspiring_ is who Barry Allen is. That’s all **Gryffindor secondary**.

From sortinghatchats:

> _Gryffindor Secondaries charge. They meet the world head-on and challenge it to do its worst. Gryffindor Secondaries are honest, brash, and bold in pursuit of things they care about. Known for their bravery, it is almost a moral matter to stay true to themselves in any situation that they’re in._

Barry is someone who will get knocked down and get back up as many times as it takes in a fight. He’s someone who will use bluntness and brute force to solve his problems, whether it’s physically or emotionally. That doesn’t always look violent - his unsuccessful appeal to Abra Kadabra’s good nature to learn who Savitar is is a great example of how this can work without violence. He’ll take strategy if he can get it, and there’s absolutely a part of him that enjoys clever tricks… but ultimately, Barry doesn’t thrive on puzzles for the sake of puzzles. Barry loves _solutions,_ and he can be, as “Wells” once pointed out, a bit of a show-off. His pure _glee_ at being mugged in S1 E7 and at helping Joe and Eddie fight criminals after Eddie finds out that he’s the Flash speaks to that.

Barry also can’t dissemble; it being a “moral matter” to stay true to himself is a perfect description of where his struggle comes from in S1 after he discovers that “Wells” was involved in his mother’s murder. Joe can fake it. Barry can’t. If he tells you that he’s going to do something, he will do it. He tells his father he’ll free him from prison, and he _does._ He promises to go back for Jay (twice!), and he _does._ He promises to save Iris, and he _does_. Yes, he’s saving people he cares about (or identifies with) - but it’s often clear that Barry’s motivated by the principle as much as the practical implications. He doesn’t break promises because that’s just not what you _do._

Barry is also someone who’s very direct in how he deals with people, and that filters down to his entire team, because Barry inspires them. He inspires them to be braver and tougher, yes - but he also inspires them to be _honest._ He tells them how he feels and what he knows: he’s honest about he remembers from the night his mother died, he’s honest about his feelings for Iris, he’s honest about Flashpoint. It causes him clear distress when he hides things from people - Barry’s default state is being an open book. While he can accept that it’s not always possible, he doesn’t like it, because he often isn’t _deciding_ to tell people so much as being too earnest to _not_ tell them.

To summarize: Barry is a **Gryffindor primary** and a **Gryffindor secondary**.


End file.
